The CTA is hoping that a new deterrent will hit home with graffiti taggers who are thinking about leaving their mark on transit property.

The agency is taking vandalism and graffiti defendants — or in the case of minors, their parents or legal guardians — to Cook County Circuit Court, officials said Tuesday.

The message to vandals for several years now has been that they face an increasing likelihood of arrest for criminal defacement of government property, as the direct result of thousands of surveillance cameras across the CTA system.

However, that alone hasn’t proven to be enough of a disincentive to rub out the CTA’s $1 million-a-year graffiti problem, officials said.

Anti-graffiti civil lawsuits against parents are the first of their kind filed by the CTA, using the Illinois Parental Responsibility Law, which authorizes “recovery of damages from parents or legal guardians’’ for up to $20,000 “due to the willful injury to person or property by minor children.’’

The CTA is seeking to recover the cost of graffiti clean-up and repairs of rail equipment, any lost revenue caused by its equipment being out of service, court costs and attorney fees, officials said.

“Unlike in criminal court, where it is left up to judges to decide whether to order restitution, the civil lawsuits allow us to recoup all the costs related to the damage,’’ said CTA spokeswoman Tammy Chase. She said the CTA is relying on state law rather than city ordinances because only attorneys representing the city can file cases under the city’s administrative hearing process.

The CTA recently filed four lawsuits totaling $13,109 against the parents or legal guardians of eight minors, ages 14 to 17, all charged with misdemeanor criminal defacement to property, officials said.

In one case, the CTA sued the parents of three children accused of breaking into the 98th Street rail yard in March and spraying graffiti on a pair of rail cars. The lawsuit said the agency temporarily lost the use of those cars and the cars permanently coupled to them, and that “unwanted graffiti produced by minors on … buses and trains is a growing and expensive problem.” That suit asks for $2,657.09 from each teen’s family.

Another lawsuit names the mothers of two minors accused of vandalizing a Blue Line train in February “by etching or marking graffiti.” The teens were riding the train when they vandalized it, the suit alleges. That lawsuit asks for $1,309.18 from each boy’s mother.

High-resolution surveillance cameras outfitted on all CTA buses and trains and deployed at rail stations since May 2011 have aided the transit agency and the Chicago Police Department in making 60 arrests involving graffiti tagging and other types of vandalism on CTA property from January through March of this year, officials said.

Arrests are up because many cameras were added within the last year or so on more than 800 older cars, as well as cameras being on board more than 700 of the CTA’s newest rail cars still being delivered, officials said.

The 60 graffiti-related arrests during the first three months this year equal all CTA vandalism arrests made in 2013, officials said, adding that property damage last year totaled about $900,000 to rail equipment and roughly $100,000 to buses.

“Without security cameras, these arrests likely would not have occurred, and these individuals could still be defacing CTA property,” CTA president Forrest Claypool said in a statement.

Another lawsuit, against an adult and serial offender charged with felony criminal damage to government property, seeks $14,269 in damages.

In yet another case, the CTA settled last month with an adult who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal defacement of property and will reimburse the CTA for $3,536 in cleaning costs, officials said. He will also serve community service hours.

CTA officials said they expect riders will strongly support the new legal initiative against vandalism.

“I am totally in favor of the CTA charging the vandals’ parents for cleanup. With graffiti, our city looks cheap and rundown,’’ Roger Dore wrote in an email to the Tribune on Tuesday. “Graffiti and gun violence are two things that make my blood boil and I’m a calm, peaceful 70-year-old citizen proud to have been born and raised in Chicago.’’

A zero-tolerance policy toward graffiti on public transit may be nearly impossible to enforce, but “taking steps to make families responsible will affect the psychology of those involved in graffiti,’’ said Greg Hull, assistant vice president of public safety, operations and technical service at the American Public Transportation Association, which represents transit systems in the U.S.

Angone said making parents accountable for their children’s actions worked in the past — using city ordinances even without the added threat of a lawsuit — and it will work again.

“The threat of Junior going to the juvenile jail is a huge thing with parents,’’ Angone said. “That’s what got the CTA their reimbursements from the families. Even if they had to be put on a payment program, the parents paid.”

The CTA said Wednesday it is moving forward with a multibillion-dollar overhaul of the Red Line’s aging north branch tracks and stations, just hours after South Siders aired complaints to the agency’s board that Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s promised southern extension of the same rail...

Sixteen buildings will need to be razed to make way for elevated bypass tracks that will separate three CTA rail lines on the North Side -- the Red, Brown and Purple -- and speed up train trips through one of the worst bottlenecks in the system.